Ron Pragides
@mrp • 9,931 subscribers
Led pre-IPO Eng teams: @Salesforce @Twitter @BigCommerce • Eager to build another great company.
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Miley Cyrus 💞 Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus at Dollywood Parks & Resorts in 2010
Ron Pragides 95,536 views • 15 days ago
RO KHANNA IN 2024 WAS AGAINST TAXES ON UNREALIZED CAPITAL GAINS “Let me tell you why I don't think a blanket tax in unrealized gains is a good thing: Say you're an entrepreneur, create a company that gets to $100 million or $200 million on paper. After taxing that you're probably going to force that person to sell it. Probably going to sell it to private equity. Do you really want the entrepreneurs to be forced to sell their companies to larger institutions and to decline in value? I don't think that's what you want for a start-up… this is not the right way to do it and also 95% of investments in start-ups fail. You're going to disincentivize investments in those start-ups.“ Ro Khanna Rep. Ro Khanna ht Joe Kernen Becky Quick Andrew Ross Sorkin Squawk Box CNBC
Ron Pragides 1,318,242 views • 8 months ago
MANHATTAN IS FOR THE RCH “I live in Manhattan, and it's just crazy seeing how people live.… You could earn $3 million a year — this is going to be a clip that someone's going to mock me for, but let me just say it — you could make $2 to $3 million a year, and seriously, with a family, and live paycheck to paycheck. It's crazy how much money people spend to live here. I know people who will spend $100,000 a month, and they tell me they don't feel rich. It's pretty wild.” Sam Parr My First Million
Ron Pragides 268,948 views • 2 months ago
PETER NAVARRO ON ELON MUSK: “We all understand in the White House (and the American people understand) that Elon's a car manufacturer. But he's not a car manufacturer — He's a car assembler. In many cases, if you go to his Texas plant, a good part of the engines that he gets (which in the EV case are the batteries) come from Japan and come from China. The electronics come from Taiwan... what we want — and the difference is in our thinking and Elon's on this — is that we want the tires made in Akron. We want the transmissions made in Indianapolis. We want the engines made in Flint and Saginaw. And we want the cars manufactured here.” ht Peter Navarro Elon Musk Tesla
Ron Pragides 1,534,832 views • 1 year ago
![SHOULD GOVERNMENT BE ALLOWED TO TAKE PRIVATE PROPERTY? “People are waking up to the fact that the asset seizure tax is an elimination of private property rights, that fundamentally what you're saying [is] that private property now becomes public property. Because as soon as you give the government the right to collect your post-tax assets through a legislative vote, you are basically saying that you no longer have private property — because at any point in the future the government can vote to say I'm going to take your private property — which is different than an income tax. [An income tax] is when you earn something that you didn't have before, and they take a percentage of your earnings (of your income). The statement now is after you've made your income (it's now your private property) — they can come and take it. And so that is a distinction that has never existed in the United States. And I will make the retort right now to property tax, because people always say to me: ‘what about property tax?’ A property tax is a service fee on a particular, specific asset. The money that is collected provides services for that asset to make it more valuable. So you get roads, infrastructure, policing, fire, schools… All the stuff that comes with property tax makes that property [more valuable]. And you have the option at any point you want to sell that property and stop paying that property tax. You have the option at any point to downgrade your property and get a cheaper property and pay [a lower tax]. And here's the other important point about property tax: it’s uniform. Uniform means that everyone pays the same percentage, the same property tax rate in a county. This asset seizure tax that's being proposed is a demographic tax — meaning that the state or the legislature defines a specific group of individuals (in this case, they're saying anyone with a net worth over a billion dollars) and then they can go and take assets from only that group. That is nonuniform taxation. It means that for the first time we're saying based on the demographics of a person meaning whatever you want to use to define that person (in this case their wealth) — you are going to be treated differently. And that is different than an income tax, because remember when you have graduated income tax rates (and you say high earners get taxed more) — what you're taxing is the earnings, not the individual. You're not looking through to the individual to determine whether or not they're wealthy. All you're doing is looking at the independent earnings amount that's coming in. And so a uniformity clause is supposed to protect people from being demographically discriminated against. And you may roll your hand and be like: ‘Oh, who cares about the billionaires? Eat the rich. That's great.’ But fundamentally, you're giving the government, the legislature, the ability to in the future take any demographic definition they want and go in and take any percentage they want of after-tax property from you. That is why this is so troubling.” david friedberg The All-In Podcast](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2012558948130501004/amplify_video_thumb/2012557570549088256/img/tvspEgv_CJZyLczl.jpg)
SHOULD GOVERNMENT BE ALLOWED TO TAKE PRIVATE PROPERTY? “People are waking up to the fact that the asset seizure tax is an elimination of private property rights, that fundamentally what you're saying [is] that private property now becomes public property. Because as soon as you give the government the right to collect your post-tax assets through a legislative vote, you are basically saying that you no longer have private property — because at any point in the future the government can vote to say I'm going to take your private property — which is different than an income tax. [An income tax] is when you earn something that you didn't have before, and they take a percentage of your earnings (of your income). The statement now is after you've made your income (it's now your private property) — they can come and take it. And so that is a distinction that has never existed in the United States. And I will make the retort right now to property tax, because people always say to me: ‘what about property tax?’ A property tax is a service fee on a particular, specific asset. The money that is collected provides services for that asset to make it more valuable. So you get roads, infrastructure, policing, fire, schools… All the stuff that comes with property tax makes that property [more valuable]. And you have the option at any point you want to sell that property and stop paying that property tax. You have the option at any point to downgrade your property and get a cheaper property and pay [a lower tax]. And here's the other important point about property tax: it’s uniform. Uniform means that everyone pays the same percentage, the same property tax rate in a county. This asset seizure tax that's being proposed is a demographic tax — meaning that the state or the legislature defines a specific group of individuals (in this case, they're saying anyone with a net worth over a billion dollars) and then they can go and take assets from only that group. That is nonuniform taxation. It means that for the first time we're saying based on the demographics of a person meaning whatever you want to use to define that person (in this case their wealth) — you are going to be treated differently. And that is different than an income tax, because remember when you have graduated income tax rates (and you say high earners get taxed more) — what you're taxing is the earnings, not the individual. You're not looking through to the individual to determine whether or not they're wealthy. All you're doing is looking at the independent earnings amount that's coming in. And so a uniformity clause is supposed to protect people from being demographically discriminated against. And you may roll your hand and be like: ‘Oh, who cares about the billionaires? Eat the rich. That's great.’ But fundamentally, you're giving the government, the legislature, the ability to in the future take any demographic definition they want and go in and take any percentage they want of after-tax property from you. That is why this is so troubling.” david friedberg The All-In Podcast
Ron Pragides 258,567 views • 7 months ago
![NEWSOM AGAINST WEALTH TAX IN CALIFORNIA “You can't isolate yourself from the 49 [other states]. We're in a competitive environment. People have this simple luxury particularly people of that status. They already have two or three homes outside the state. It's a simple issue. You’ve got to be pragmatic about it. Plus there's some simple questions that haven't been answered very simply is how the hell do you determine it? Is it you mark to market? Where's your asset base? How you make that determination in terms of just what the basic assessment is? We have one individual that represents one labor union in the state of California that has not collected one signature that is considering putting on the ballot after he collects signatures a wealth tax that the vast majority of labor opposes and almost everybody I know opposes. So it's not something to be panicked about, but it's part of the broader concern and narrative that's developed in this country of the halves and have nots, not just income inequality, but wealth inequality.… You go back, read an old Plutarch quote, two plus thousand years ago. Plutarch was warning the Athenians that the imbalance between the rich and the poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.” Gavin Newsom Governor Gavin Newsom via Andrew Ross Sorkin DealBook The New York Times](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2004710044278161633/amplify_video_thumb/2004709781257531392/img/NubWlhE3Vb4BhKEj.jpg)
NEWSOM AGAINST WEALTH TAX IN CALIFORNIA “You can't isolate yourself from the 49 [other states]. We're in a competitive environment. People have this simple luxury particularly people of that status. They already have two or three homes outside the state. It's a simple issue. You’ve got to be pragmatic about it. Plus there's some simple questions that haven't been answered very simply is how the hell do you determine it? Is it you mark to market? Where's your asset base? How you make that determination in terms of just what the basic assessment is? We have one individual that represents one labor union in the state of California that has not collected one signature that is considering putting on the ballot after he collects signatures a wealth tax that the vast majority of labor opposes and almost everybody I know opposes. So it's not something to be panicked about, but it's part of the broader concern and narrative that's developed in this country of the halves and have nots, not just income inequality, but wealth inequality.… You go back, read an old Plutarch quote, two plus thousand years ago. Plutarch was warning the Athenians that the imbalance between the rich and the poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.” Gavin Newsom Governor Gavin Newsom via Andrew Ross Sorkin DealBook The New York Times
Ron Pragides 250,393 views • 8 months ago
![AI & JOB DISPLACEMENT “Do you remember like a year ago when Klarna said they're going to replace their whole customer service department with AI and they did a lot of hype. It was peak aura farming. And, well, lo and behold, they flipped the decision back after a year. They said that from a brand perspective, a company perspective, ‘it’s just so critical that you are clear to your customer that there will always be a human if you want,’ [Sebastian Siemiatkowski said]. …There's so many CEOs who want to tap into the media's hype cycle. This is the thing: is that whenever the media gets a hold of one of these narratives, there's so many CEOs who are not like [Alex Karp Palantir], right? Who just are not original, and they don't really have anything important to say, so the only way for them to get publicity is to glom onto that press cycle and try to use it. And then they'll chime in with, you know, how they're going to do crazy things like eliminate their whole customer support department. And then lo and behold, it turns out just to be totally fake.” David Sacks The All-In Podcast](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2073456136238596342/amplify_video_thumb/2073455978356641792/img/yvK55fy_8B179Shs.jpg)
AI & JOB DISPLACEMENT “Do you remember like a year ago when Klarna said they're going to replace their whole customer service department with AI and they did a lot of hype. It was peak aura farming. And, well, lo and behold, they flipped the decision back after a year. They said that from a brand perspective, a company perspective, ‘it’s just so critical that you are clear to your customer that there will always be a human if you want,’ [Sebastian Siemiatkowski said]. …There's so many CEOs who want to tap into the media's hype cycle. This is the thing: is that whenever the media gets a hold of one of these narratives, there's so many CEOs who are not like [Alex Karp Palantir], right? Who just are not original, and they don't really have anything important to say, so the only way for them to get publicity is to glom onto that press cycle and try to use it. And then they'll chime in with, you know, how they're going to do crazy things like eliminate their whole customer support department. And then lo and behold, it turns out just to be totally fake.” David Sacks The All-In Podcast
Ron Pragides 60,046 views • 2 months ago
![CHAMATH: STAYING IN CALIFORNIA (DESPITE THE TAXES) “It’s given me everything, so I will not leave and I will keep building companies there and hiring people there. And if there’s taxes that I have to pay, I’ll pay these taxes. But I just think that at some point, we’re better off addressing the core issue of why people believe this form of governance actually makes sense. Is it because they actually think it’s better, or is it that they’re just angry about a bunch of other things? And I think it’s mostly the latter, so we should fix that because there is no sane human being that could look at any of this information and think that we are well run. We are completely, completely out of our mind… You know, there is a period where I definitely thought about [leaving California] and I went around. I looked at different places and I thought: ‘Wait a minute, California is incredible, Palo Alto is incredible, it’s given me everything.’ And I just said: ‘Okay, mentally here’s the number and just allocate it and just let’s move on with our lives and get back to building things that I think are important.’ The reason why people are angry, it’s the same reason they were angry in 1890, it’s the same reason they were angry in Europe in 1930 at the beginning, it’s the same reason after 2008, we’ve had all of this pushback, it’s the same reason. So at some point, we should just fix the core problem that everybody is shouting about, as opposed to allowing these other people to pervert the frustration they have into these dumb ideas and programs that are always about, give me more money and I will solve your problems. It just doesn’t work… The core problem is there is a large number of people that look and believe that the latter has been pulled up above them. Why do they believe that right now? I think very specifically technology has had this profoundly positive impact but very, very few of us participated in it. In the way that we all think that we’ve made it better for everybody, looking at Instagram reels does not make your life better. That’s not true. Being able to have a functional search is useful, but it doesn’t necessarily make your life better. So we have to answer the question, how does this economically benefit more people?” Chamath Palihapitiya via Squawk Box Andrew Ross Sorkin Joe Kernen](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2077222983240913271/amplify_video_thumb/2077222298499903488/img/e6iR9Gg6xUqv6DGv.jpg)
CHAMATH: STAYING IN CALIFORNIA (DESPITE THE TAXES) “It’s given me everything, so I will not leave and I will keep building companies there and hiring people there. And if there’s taxes that I have to pay, I’ll pay these taxes. But I just think that at some point, we’re better off addressing the core issue of why people believe this form of governance actually makes sense. Is it because they actually think it’s better, or is it that they’re just angry about a bunch of other things? And I think it’s mostly the latter, so we should fix that because there is no sane human being that could look at any of this information and think that we are well run. We are completely, completely out of our mind… You know, there is a period where I definitely thought about [leaving California] and I went around. I looked at different places and I thought: ‘Wait a minute, California is incredible, Palo Alto is incredible, it’s given me everything.’ And I just said: ‘Okay, mentally here’s the number and just allocate it and just let’s move on with our lives and get back to building things that I think are important.’ The reason why people are angry, it’s the same reason they were angry in 1890, it’s the same reason they were angry in Europe in 1930 at the beginning, it’s the same reason after 2008, we’ve had all of this pushback, it’s the same reason. So at some point, we should just fix the core problem that everybody is shouting about, as opposed to allowing these other people to pervert the frustration they have into these dumb ideas and programs that are always about, give me more money and I will solve your problems. It just doesn’t work… The core problem is there is a large number of people that look and believe that the latter has been pulled up above them. Why do they believe that right now? I think very specifically technology has had this profoundly positive impact but very, very few of us participated in it. In the way that we all think that we’ve made it better for everybody, looking at Instagram reels does not make your life better. That’s not true. Being able to have a functional search is useful, but it doesn’t necessarily make your life better. So we have to answer the question, how does this economically benefit more people?” Chamath Palihapitiya via Squawk Box Andrew Ross Sorkin Joe Kernen
Ron Pragides 44,526 views • 1 month ago
![MARÍA CORINA MACHADO ON A POST-MADURO VENEZUELA “Venezuela is for me the country with the largest opportunities, not only for the United States [but] the rest of the West… I'm not talking about our natural endowments, which are huge. We'll already address that, or infrastructure or even our geographical position. It's our people, what we have endured, and the way we have come together. And I've heard recently some people talking about: that once Maduro goes out (because he will leave soon) there's this risk of civil war or unrest. Give me a break. We're talking about a country where 90% of the population, we all want the same. There are no religious differences. There are no racial tensions, no social or political differences. We all want the same. And we have fought so hard for freedom that we are the ones who are guaranteed that this will be an orderly transition. And yes, we are close to the United States values and culture. Yes, we are. We admire a nation that has strong democratic institutions; that feel proud for their achievements, their history, their legacy. And so are we. So look, those kind of socialist rhetoric nowadays is useless in Venezuela. You know, we have only known socialism. And Venezuela today is a country I believe that most people embrace open markets, respect for private property, merit and collaboration.” María Corina Machado, awarded 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her non-violent struggle to restore democracy in Venezuela (ht The Nobel Prize david friedberg The All-In Podcast)](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2007542593387991205/amplify_video_thumb/2007542413078806528/img/uzIe9CXZj5LjzyPE.jpg)
MARÍA CORINA MACHADO ON A POST-MADURO VENEZUELA “Venezuela is for me the country with the largest opportunities, not only for the United States [but] the rest of the West… I'm not talking about our natural endowments, which are huge. We'll already address that, or infrastructure or even our geographical position. It's our people, what we have endured, and the way we have come together. And I've heard recently some people talking about: that once Maduro goes out (because he will leave soon) there's this risk of civil war or unrest. Give me a break. We're talking about a country where 90% of the population, we all want the same. There are no religious differences. There are no racial tensions, no social or political differences. We all want the same. And we have fought so hard for freedom that we are the ones who are guaranteed that this will be an orderly transition. And yes, we are close to the United States values and culture. Yes, we are. We admire a nation that has strong democratic institutions; that feel proud for their achievements, their history, their legacy. And so are we. So look, those kind of socialist rhetoric nowadays is useless in Venezuela. You know, we have only known socialism. And Venezuela today is a country I believe that most people embrace open markets, respect for private property, merit and collaboration.” María Corina Machado, awarded 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her non-violent struggle to restore democracy in Venezuela (ht The Nobel Prize david friedberg The All-In Podcast)
Ron Pragides 66,468 views • 8 months ago
THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF STRESS “People say: ‘How are you doing? Are you stressed or relaxed?’ I say: ‘I'm not stressed enough.’ I miss the level of intensity, the storm I was in the middle of, at Zynga… Because it was such a high to be in this creative loop: that I could be working with amazing product teams and making these huge leaps every week, and come up with ideas, get them out, see users love it, see metrics move, see our financials move weekly. That's a high that I miss. And when I'm in the abyss — which is what I call any time in between those — I have a different kind of stress and anxiety.” mark pincus via My First Million ht Sam Parr Shaan Puri
Ron Pragides 16,225 views • 2 months ago
